A great many types of kites are commercially available. Most kites are made with a material such as paper, nylon cloth or sheet plastic stretched over a frame made of a framing rods often called spars. Some kites now in use do not have rod frames, but their structure is provided by air pressure provided by the same wind which is causing the kite to fly. These types of kites are called ram air kites. One of these prior art kites is pictured in FIG. 31. This kites contains 5 air chambers which when filled with air under pressure give structure to the kite. The kite is flown with a leading edge 80 facing into the wind. Air provided by the wind is forced into chambers 81 through opening 82 in the leading edge 80. The ram air design captures the wind, creating an overpressure sufficient to inflate the kite and maintain its shape throughout its wind window.
These ram air kites can be made very large. Some are commercially available with a windward surface area of about 250 square feet. It has become popular to use these ram air kites to provide the force necessary to propel small vehicles such as small carts, small boats, small water boards, bicycles, tricycles, snow boards and skate boards. A sport of kite racing is developing in the United States and several other countries. When using a kite to propel a vehicle, control of the position and direction of the kite is very important. Ram air kites of the type shown in FIG. 31 move well in the direction of its leading edge. However, it can move in the direction of its trailing edge only very slowly. Any attempt to move the kite quickly in the direction of its trailing edge will reduce the ram air pressure and cause the kite to deflate and/or collapse. Normally, the pilot desiring to move the kite in the direction of its trailing edge will cause the kite to slowly turn 180 degrees so that its leading edge is facing in the direction that was its trailing edge. This maneuver is difficult to perform at angles of more than 70 degrees off the wind direction; therefore, a slow backup of the kite is often required in order to have the kite flying at angles less than 70 degrees of the wind direction. Having to slow down or back up a kite is often very undesirable, especially to the competitive kite pilot.
The concept of using ram air to provide the structure to a kite has also been applied to parachutes and to gliders. As with the prior art kite, these prior art parachutes and gliders provide only one leading edge so that the parachute and the glider must go in the direction of that leading edge or the structure could be destroyed.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a ram air kite more maneuverable than prior art ram air kites.